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Like thousands of his fellow Alabamians, Birmingham native Kenneth Tyrone King works without health insurance, doing his best to keep chronic health problems under control.
Kenneth Tyrone King is an “underemployed” resident of Birmingham, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He chooses the term “underemployed” carefully, as a testament to the difficulty of finding and keeping work in the face of chronic health challenges, including an irregular heartbeat.
“I’m thinking about longevity in life and being here for my daughter and my wife.”
Volunteer work and community advocacy, including service on the Alabama Arise board, give him a sense of connection and purpose, but they don’t pay the bills. “Most of the jobs I have are temporary,” he says. “And if they do sustain longer-term, they sometimes just end.” Kenneth isn’t able to obtain health insurance because the work he can get doesn’t provide it. And he can’t afford coverage through the Marketplace.
“I’m thinking about longevity in life and being here for my daughter and my wife,” Kenneth says. “Hopefully, if I can get employment that would have health benefits, that would offset my concerns about my health overall.”
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